How can hell break loose
by greenspace
Summary: A modern AU take, involving some the characters of my other fic, 'Wanted dead or alive'.
1. Chapter 1

**Hello! This is something I'm posting to make amends for not updating 'Wanted dead or alive'. Exams are coming and I currently am quite the nervous wreck so, yeah, it's not my best of times to write something with clear mind. ****A new chapter to it will be up in precisely a week, I promise. **

**This modern AU thing is something I was fiddling with at some point around Christmas. Mama Dís also makes a guest appearance in this one! ****Hope this can compensate for the missing chapter in the original story. Enjoy!**

* * *

"Oh, and Fili has the potatoes if you want to mash them."

An annoyed sigh escaped her mouth and Arya twirled the fork in her hand, wondering if it could possibly turn into the ultimate weapon that could make the mule shut up. "Please," she almost snarled, "feel free to share whatever is the matter with you."

"Oh ho," Fili feigned a laugh the moment Kili angrily went to open his mouth, "mum's here, bro." He then pointedly glared at him to warn him not to start a fight again.

It had ended up a joke, their fights. They had begun long, long ago. Since almost one and a half years ago, when Arya had come to the city to work in their business and was in search of a place to live and Fili had generously suggested that she could become his flatmate, given that he had a spare room in his place. She and his brother had met on her first day at work. There was a small misunderstanding between them, which led to a huge fight; so huge and simultaneously entertaining that led some of their colleagues ready to grab a bag of popcorn and gawk with great interest and amusement.

And from there on, everything went downhill; they fought on a daily basis for practically everything. On some instances, they couldn't even recall the cause of their argument, either it being important or petty. They just held to their respective opinions so strongly, both being unreasonably stubborn and proud, that there were times they refused to even look at each other.

Not that they looked at each other a lot; at least in the beginning. After the first four or so months, one was trying to catch the other's glimpse when he wasn't looking. Fili had naturally observed this. The day he did he had laughed so hard that a little piss actually came out. Yet whenever he would try to make either of them open their eyes and see what all this was about, or teased them, they were a step away from going berserk and thought it in the least absurd.

Currently, Kili was ignoring him and was already tuned up for another promising fight. He turned his eyes back to Arya. "There is nothing the matter with me. I am just not completely devoid of sentiment," he accused gruffly. "I have feelings and respect. I don't sulk and try to make other people miserable, when all they want is to have a happy meal with their family."

Her fork dropped on the plate and then the table with a metallic thud. "Okay," she snapped quietly, "fine."

Kili's face remained neutral as she jumped up from her seat and stormed out of the room, while Fili let a weary sigh that was drowned in the palpable discomfort of the atmosphere.

Dís had remained silent all this time, observing carefully the three people around the table. Kili had never behaved as such during a meal, even in his worst days. She couldn't possibly figure out why the girl annoyed him so much. She had met Arya on a few occasions during the last year and a half and, granted, it wasn't that much to get to know her well enough, but she seemed quite nice, if a bit distant at times –though only when people didn't carefully observe her. Fili had also never mentioned something disagreeable about her character. Yet still, in contrast to her older, Kili was-

Oh. Oooh.

It didn't take much for the shrewd mother of two to realise where the root of all the trouble lay, and a ghostly smile appeared on her lips. She remembered Kili during his previous relationships, but something felt weirdly off this time. And not necessarily good weird.

Just then, Arya barged into the room with a furious look, holding a small box in her hands. "Don't say that I have no sentiment," she spat out as she came to stand in front of Kili. "This is the camera my father used for all his life. This is the first picture he took of my older brother and me when I was born and this is the first he took of my brother, me and our little brother when he was born."

The first picture depicted a boy of no more than two years old cuddled up with a little baby, red and wrinkled, and the second one two smiling children holding a less red and wrinkled baby.

"This," she continued, taking a battered copy of Pride and Prejudice out of the box, "was my mother's favorite book that she used to read every night she couldn't sleep." She dropped the book into the box again and sent a hurtful, angry glare at him. "These are the only things I have from them. And the reason I don't share the cheery mood you have is because I don't remember how it is to have family meals anymore. So I usually tend to avoid these kinds of social gatherings for the sake of my nerves and the other people's moods."

At that precise moment, a thread snapped in Kili's chest. All his annoyance and anger evaporated and were replaced with mortification. He felt positively ready to smack the back of his own head or, even better, go find himself a rock to hide under.

"So don't tell me that I have no sentiment," the distraught woman went on. "I am sorry for ruining your mood and day," she added sarcastically, "but I insisted from the beginning not to take part. I only agreed because Fili asked me like a zillion times. So there you are, wish granted. You are now free to enjoy the happy meal with your family and not a stranger."

With that, she set off to her room again, pulling the door shut behind her and dropping the box on her office.

Mother and younger son sat there, quite dumbfounded. Only Fili was partly aware of the reason she disliked some days of the year -if not the whole year- and he had insisted on her joining them, simply to make her feel part of a family again. But here enter Kili. How could Fili possibly guess that his brother would pull at the thread so far?

"Bravo," the blond mumbled sullenly and began clapping his hands. "I hope you're happy now."

Kili didn't even bother to look at him, let alone reply. He had just fixed his eyes on an empty spot upon the table, looking absolutely ready to shove his head up the chicken's arse to spare himself the criticism. Some days of the year had always been a favourite to him, because mum would visit and they would eat all together. And he didn't like how Arya was sulking like a spoiled child that didn't get the present she wanted. He didn't know why she was really sulking, though. Damn, how was he supposed not to hit that spot in his anger, since he didn't know?

"Are you still sitting here?" Fili grunted at him. "Go and apologise, now."

The brunet hesitantly raised his so far downcast head and met his brother's otherwise smiley blue eyes suddenly having turned severe and solemn. "But I-"

"I said _go_," the blond swatted his hand on the table, suddenly reminding to both his brother and their mother of uncle Thorin.

"Come on, Fili, let him be," Dís scolded quietly, grabbing her son's tense forearm to calm him. "Let them both be. I doubt she wants to see him right now."

* * *

From the moment Arya withdrew in the peace of her room, she felt positively eager to let the bed swallow her in order for these days to just pass while asleep. But sleep was never something that came to easily to her, nor was it calm and peaceful. It was rather unnerving and plagued with weird images and dreams. It was also pretty much freezing outside and the rain was falling hard against the window glass, so a walk was not an option either.

In summary, sleep and going for a walk were hardly possible, while returning to the table seemed absurd to say the least. Her list of possible things to do grew quite thin. Thus in the end she resolved to plump on the ground by the foot of the bed, stare out of the window at the cloudy sky and the rain, and play various tunes in her mind to get her tension and nerves calmer.

She liked it this way. The solitude and the silence were always redemptive.

The family meal rolled unlike the other times. For most of the time mother and sons were fairly silent, and only when the wine took an effect they cracked some lighthearted smiles. As soon as they said goodbye and Kili and their mother left, Fili went directly to Arya's room to see how she was faring.

She immediately brushed off his concern, though, reassuring him that she was fine, just needed to be alone for the rest of the day and she would be well tomorrow. Thankfully, she had the day off tomorrow and then weekend followed. What else could someone who was determined to rot in his solitude for four days in a row be thankful for?

Oblivious to her plan, Fili shook his head in agreement. Although being her flatmate for more than a year now had its perks. So he made a mental note to check on her every few hours to see if she was well.

* * *

Meanwhile, the one-hour car ride to drive his mother back home had set Kili on edge. They hadn't really talked a lot en route. She didn't even make an attempt to scold him about his rather tactless outburst earlier. She was too silent and Kili didn't like that. Lack of words usually was a harbinger of a storm when it came to his mother.

Somewhere in the middle of the route, he couldn't take it anymore. "Mum, please, say something," he huffed out. "Anything. Just don't make me feel like I've murdered someone."

From the passenger seat, Dís sideways looked at him. "If you wanna talk about something specific, you only have to tell me."

Trying to keep his attention on the road, he risked a quick glance of confusion at her. "Same applies to you."

"Kili, darling, you are almost 26 years old," his mother sighed. "I believe you're smart enough to realise a few things on your own."

Thank God, he inwardly sighed. At least she was scolding him. "I made a mistake, I know," he said wearily, "but I will fix it. I will apologise-"

Here, she pursed her lips to cover the rumbling laughter that was ready to break out and pinched the bridge of her nose. It seemed to be a gesture that ran in the family, for everyone did it on numerous occasions.

"What?" Kili demanded, furrowing his eyebrow in suspicion. "Why are you laughing?" But his mother resumed her efforts to choke her laughter and refused to say anything. It admittedly did not bring the best reaction from him. "Is there something funny and overly obvious to you that my limited intelligence does not allow me to grasp?"

"Ah," Dís panted when the laughter ebbed away, "you are in big trouble, young man, you know that?"

"No, actually, I don't!" he burst. "Could you please be so kind and explain it to me?"

"Lower your voice, Kili" she said evenly, not wanting to push him to his limits, and he seemed to tone it down. "You may not like Arya a lot, but she had her reasons to be like that today. And you are correct in saying that you have to apologise to her. Who knows," she shrugged, "you may even make her smile."

Kili rolled eyes at this. He would only pull a smile out of her just because of the outrage of the scene of him apologising to her. Otherwise, there wasn't even the slightest chance for this to happen. Only a few times, counted on the fingers of one hand, he had seen her smiling genuinely. One of those times, in fact, he had captured with his camera -unbeknownst to her. If she, God forbid, ever learned about the existence of this photo, she would probably sue him for stalking her, or being a pervert, or all sorts of accusations she could come up with.

Of course, he was neither a stalker nor a pervert. It was a simple picture that was randomly taken in a night out with friends, where she had ended up something less than sober and it was actually the first time she had smiled at him.

Resolving to be as subtle as the situation obliged, Dís decided to drop the bait, "Besides, she looks better smiling rather than brooding, don't you think?"

Kili absentmindedly nodded in agreement, recalling Arya's face at the exact moment he was taking that picture. She hadn't stopped laughing that night and, for a weird reason, he remembered himself feeling quite amused by that fact. She seemed to be an affectionate drunk. He still couldn't get over that smile. It was so wide and genuine that it brightened her whole face and, as he grudgingly admitted, made him smile as well. So, yes, she looked infinitely better smiling.

His mother's chuckle failed to reach his ears and he coerced himself to keep his eyes focused on the road ahead. It much later occurred to him that he had seconded her sayings with something more than a mere nod and rather ardently.

* * *

Almost two days had passed from that fateful meal and Arya had yet to emerge from her room, except to visit the loo, or refill her stock of water.

Fili was starting to worry. She barely talked and hadn't actually eaten anything since Thursday afternoon. Many a time he had barged into the room with a tray of food, but he saw her snugly swaddled under the covers, and with half a heart decided to let her sleep and not disturb her.

Saturday morning had arrived and Fili seriously doubted his intention to escort his mother to uncle Thorin's house. They had arranged to spend the weekend there, but with a living puppet in the house, he wasn't sure he would stay true to his word. But super mum came to the rescue with a plan and, after two hours of thinking and rethinking, he found himself having packed things up and sticking a note on the fridge for Arya to read. At least, he hoped she would. Normally it was the first place a sane person would head to in order to sate his hunger. _Normally_.

While initially upset to hear the news that he would not get to join them to uncle Thorin's for the weekend, Kili eventually had to comply with his mother and brother's schemes. What he would give to have gone with them, though. The rest of the family's friends would be there too. Uncle Thorin and Mr. Balin would have a long conversation about business and politics, Dwalin would want to talk about football and drink all Thorin's supplies in beer, Bombur would organise one of his famous barbecues and so on. Perhaps their cousin, Gimli, would also drop by for a visit if he found the time. However, after the blunder Kili had made two days ago, that lovely routine went flying out of the window. And he was stuck here, obliged to offer an apology and keep an eye on his brother's flatmate who, as Fili informed him, had been sleeping for two days in a row and was probably –and stupidly- starving herself.

Talking about luck, eh?

Yet the more he swirled the idea around his head, the more agreeable he found it. Perhaps in a very deep, dusty part of his subconscious, he might as well want to stay alone with her for a whole weekend. It wasn't a chance he got every day, after all. Yet that particular thought failed to prevail in his mind, or maybe he well succeeded in blocking it.

He hadn't realised how his steps carried him outside the large building. He hurriedly entered it, as well as the lift seconds later and pressed the button for the wanted floor. He took a deep breath, exhaled loudly and then braced himself for what was about to come. He did not like apologies; was never good at it. And despite his hurry when he walked into the building, he was quite hesitant when he put the key in the hole and the door of the flat opened.

* * *

A polite knock sounded at the door, but Arya made no move to open it. She had caught a few scattered words of Fili's earlier this morning that he was going to be away for the weekend, but was too drowsy to be sure. Manners be damned, but she really didn't want to see anyone apart from the walls of the room right now. So she simply continued to lay on the bed and attune her hearing to the numbing sound of the traffic outside.

Yet another knock sounded at the door, more insistent this time. This wasn't Fili; he never waited to be asked in.

The faint scent of something edible was carried through the crack under the door, and made her nostrils tingle in response. She felt as though she was trying to survive somewhere in the wild and all her senses had sharpened tenfold. Her wildest instincts seemed to awaken, even though she was trying to keep them at bay. And the knocks on the door gradually increased in both volume and intensity. Until she could not have it anymore and jumped off the bed, crossing the room in three large strides.

The door swung open and she would gasp from the surprise had not she been so irritated. "Are you trying to deafen me?" she all but growled at the totally unexpected intruder.

Kili flashed a smile, mustering all his courage. "Top o' the mornin' to ya."

Brushing aside the wry greeting that was deliberately enhanced by his natural Irish accent, she remained in front of the door and his way. "What are you doing here?"

"Such a polite manner to greet a guest," Kili commented dryly.

Her eyes briefly roamed about his figure and came to land on the small bag in his hand, from which the tantalising smell emanated. On the other hand, perhaps it came from him. Wherever he went, he would always trail a faint scent of lemon and bergamot behind which, despite the fruity undertones that made him smell like the air above a coastal orchard in Tuscany, oddly managed to remain masculine. It also resulted, much to her dismay, in making Arya describe that scent as liquid sensuality at some point in the past.

A rather catastrophic result, someone could argue; that someone being Arya, of course. Her stomach made an ever so slight rumble and she clenched her teeth in irritation, hoping that he didn't notice.

"It is for the unwanted ones," she shot back, still refusing to grant him entrance. In a further attempt to make him feel more unwelcome, she straightened her shoulders and set herself as a prominent obstacle between him and the room, ready to shut the door in his face and limit the duration of his visit to the minimum.

Her defensive stance did nothing more than make him want to laugh. "Seriously?" he quirked an eyebrow, not even bothering to look threatened, and made a face as though she was doing something that was doomed to fail. "You are a head shorter and half in width compared to me," he noted. "Do you honestly believe you stand a chance?"

A scowl spread on her face. "If my memory serves me right, and it usually does," she pointed, "weren't you the one complaining that you couldn't even move when I fell on top of you that bloody time we played Twister?"

For a fraction of a second, Kili went to smile as he recalled that night. It had started rather uneventfully as they had gathered in a friend's place. Someone had then discovered the box with the game shoved in a dusty shelf of the library and the _real_ fun began.

Now, he simply ignored the snarky reply. He had grown used to them by now. Hell, he even liked them sometimes. And he was ready to reply with one of his own. "You look surprisingly clean for someone who has been rotting in a room for three days."

Unaffected by the dry comment, she fixed him with a wry look. "I paid the occasional visit to the shower, mind you."

A very annoying voice in his head ushered him to solve this as soon as possible and not procrastinate. "Look, I'm sorry for what I told you," he blurted out quickly. It was like how a band aid should be removed; quick and painlessly. "I didn't want to touch on such a matter. I didn't know about-"

"And how not knowing justifies the fact that you accused me of ruining your day, exactly?"

"Hey," he objected, his voice starting to sound angrier, "you just pissed me off by sitting there like a grumpy corpse and I wanted to do something to get you livelier."

"Oh, way to go, mate" she let a humourless chuckle and clapped her hands in applaud. "There you go, see? I'm the laughing corpse now."

Kili was starting to fume his brains out. He both liked and hated when she was giving him a telling off. If that wasn't a sign of insanity, then what was? "The last thing I wanted was to hurt you, okay?" he snapped.

She made a dismissive motion with her hand. "Will I get to win something if I act like I care?"

"How did you get to be so cynical?"

"Years of practice," she said coldly.

Kili rolled his eyes and crossed arms in front of him. "Can you just please accept my apology? I was only trying to make you look less grumpy. Agreed, I did not choose the best way, but I didn't know with what way to go!" he cried dramatically. "You've never told me practically anything about yourself, I don't know you half as well as my brother does, how was I supposed to know what makes you feel better?"

It was the first time during this... conversation -if someone could call it thus- that she didn't manage to hold back the overflow of emotions. Her eyes were sparkling and he didn't know what the cause of it was, tears or anger?

"You don't know anything about me," she said evenly and her tone gradually increased, "because from the first moment we met you have been lashing out at me! And for inexplicable reasons that reside inside your little, precious, conniving mind!" A resigned huff escaped her mouth when she could find no other words to yell and she turned away from him, for the first time abandoning her post at the door.

Kili saw the chance and immediately took it. He walked into the room and observed how she stood before the window, with her back turned to him. "Look," he sighed, "you may be right on some points. I might have lashed out at you for no reason, maybe... maybe because I was having a bad day-"

"_Days_, Kili" she corrected with harsh voice. "Far too many bad days."

"Days, be it," he gave up. "But, apart from the fact that you've done it equal times," he brushed off the murderous glare she sent him here, "I don't know how to behave around you." Despite his age and the fact that he had had his fair share of experience with women, he felt a rush of blood racing up to his face the moment he heard his own words. Good God, was he blushing? Yet the words were out and it couldn't be saved. To hell with it, he decided. "I don't even know what your opinion of me is."

She seriously fought the urge to laugh out loud. And not in a good way. Not at all in a good way. What could her opinion of someone who considered her his archenemy be? What, indeed? Yet she could not bring herself to hate him. She might have tried to make herself believe it, but never actually had any results. There were also times that she caught him evoking the strangest of feelings to her. But she couldn't understand how she could possibly have such disturbing feelings for an arse like him, the sight of whom exchanging saliva with that redhead -who easily passed for a lingerie model- had made her feel like someone reached down her throat, grabbed her small intestine, pulled it out of her mouth and tied it around her neck.

"Right now," Kili mused, "I'm between hatred and wanting to throw me in a river and let the water do the rest."

Yes, that was actually a very close guess. She coerced her face to wear the mask of indifference again. "Don't flatter yourself," she said blankly, "I wouldn't waste my skills in assassination on someone like you."

He brushed this aside, although something inside his gut was itching him to start a fight. "And I hope you'll never have to." She nodded. "So we're good then?"

Eager for this session to come to an end as soon as possible, she decided get on with it. "Let's say we are."

"Good," he said with a wide grin and perched himself upon her bed, trying to get as comfortable as he could. "Now, stop pretending to be a mosaic and come to eat something," he said, patting the spot beside him.

Her head had turned just in time to see his gesture and how he had opened the bag he held all this time, also producing a fork out of thin air. "Ever so gallant and chivalrous," she sneered, but made no move to join him. "I'm not in the mood to eat."

Kili pulled the most intimidating face he could muster. "When your stomach rumbles like a Velociraptor from Jurassic Park," he said pointedly, "it means you _have_ to eat."

Arya scowled. The last thing she needed right now was a scolding. Yet still, she debated about what her actions should be. She hadn't actually given much thought to how hungry she was and she was only now starting to realise the degree. The moment he took a doughnut out of the bag was the critical point where she lost all control. Her whole mouth filled with saliva that she tried to swallow as discreetly as she could.

Kili had already been taking excellent care of it, the corners of his mouth stained with a bit of powdered sugar from the icing.

To hell with it, she thought and took a seat upon the bed, though trying to remain as far from him as possible. Her hand hesitantly reached to take one doughnut from the box and she noticed the weird smile Kili had on his face as he observed her. "Have you poisoned it or something?" she asked suspiciously, her hand lingering an inch away from the box.

The dark-haired man on her opposite let out a small chuckle, closing his eyes in fake frustration. "No, Arya," he promised, "I haven't poisoned it."

"Then stop smiling like a Cheshire cat," she commanded. "It scares the bejesus out of me."

He briefly raised his hands in defeat and coerced the grin to disappear from his face. It was going to be a really promising weekend if she hesitated to eat the appetisers. He chose not to think about how the main course would go. A faint sound disrupted the trail of his thoughts and his eyes traveled back to the woman beside him, who was thankfully taking a bite of food.

For a brief second that the chocolate filling cream slipped from the corner of her lips and went to slide down her chin, Kili was overwhelmed by an irresistible urge to wipe it. He made crucial efforts not to allow his imagination to run wild regarding the means he would use to wipe it. A sane person could use his hand and a tissue, while he was rather eager to use his own mouth and tongue. In the end of that torturous second, however, nothing of the two happened and Arya wiped the chocolate on her own.

Three more doughnuts followed suit after the first, with her tearing apart the two of them and him the third one.

It was then that he took a small container out of the bag and opened it, revealing a piece of pie inside. Kili had only brought it to lure her to eat a proper meal later, which would preferably include meat. She had a sweet tooth, he knew that, but had also observed how much more she was into contrasting flavours.

Licking the remains of chocolate off of her fingers, Arya looked down at the lemon pie with a predatory look, as though it was a mortal enemy. Apparently, she had been quite hungry. Kili was offering her pie. And she wanted the pie. She could show this pie a good time.

She grabbed the fork in her hand and cut a small piece from the tip. Kili refrained from admitting, even mentally, that he was a tiny bit turned on by her moan when the piece successfully found its way into her mouth.

Arya could barely hold herself from devouring everything in front of her, including the fork. The bite she had taken was melting in her mouth like an ice-cream placed under the hot sun, and the cream was out of this world. It exploded on her tongue in tiny bombs of sweet and sour bliss. She swallowed soundly, savouring the taste, sad that she would soon have to evacuate the nirvana and return to the real world. She could feel Kili's eyes on her as she ate, but couldn't honestly give a damn, even if there was cream spread all over her face.

Kili's hand hindered her effort to take a second bite. Not even flinching, he was not at all fazed by the murderous glare she gave him when she threateningly wiggled the fork before his eyes. "The rest you can have after a proper meal."

She positively felt like she was on detention and offered a not at all pleased scowl. "You should really know better than depriving a woman of her favourite dessert."

There was an edge in her tone that belied her casual manner and made Kili mentally grin. He couldn't describe how he delighted in trying to get a rise out of her, although this time she seemed prone to complying with his instructions. She dropped the fork and tore her eyes away from him.

"Why don't you do something else rather than stay and sulk in the house?" he blurted out after a few minutes of awkward silence. "For a change."

Her eyes squinted in suspicion. Now he cared about her habits?

Kili mistook the lack of answer for refusal to speak, when she in fact didn't know how to respond. "It might be good to share some of the thoughts that hurt you with other people," he said in earnest. "Why don't you give it a try?"

A mask of apathy -which, given that it was her, was a damn good one- covered her face and hid the real emotions that threatened to pour out. She silently stood from the bed and strode to the window. "Because I don't want people to pity me," she said with flat voice after a pensive second.

Kili felt something twinging inside his stomach and he narrowed his eyes in confusion. "I doubt you can strike as the character that will be pitied, whatever you do or say," he replied with a deep, solemn voice. "I, for example, do not pity you for what unfathomable reasons you think I do. One can also sympathise."

Her nervousness -an ever so slight shuffling of her feet- showed signs of an inner debate, a battle between what she thought wiser to do and what she actually wanted to do. The sight prompted Kili to decide not to lose any more time and make the first step. Literally. He walked behind her, placed his hands on her shoulders and turned her around.

It took her completely by surprise and she reflexively flinched back.

He seemed a bit put off by her sudden retreat, but refused to relent. "Come on," he said with a light smile, jokingly adding, "reliving past pain and getting depressed is the prediction of your star sign this week."

She didn't seem to appreciate the joke. Seeing her quite absorbed by her thoughts, certain that she was struggling to figure how she should react, he cautiously pulled her closer for a hug.

Arya oddly found herself unable to provide any resistance. Not because she was dying to be cuddled up into his arms, but because she in no bloody way ever expected this particular man to proceed to such a gesture that exclusively involved the two of them and not even a birthday celebration posed as the cause for close contact. No one had dared to come so close to her in what seemed like centuries; closer, not with a lascivious connotation or something of that sort, just good old affection and comfort; yet sprinkled with a little extra something that made all the change in the world.

One of his hands comfortably rested on her back, while the other slid upwards and his fingers gently started to comb through her hair. Judging by her current stance -a statue would be livelier than her-, he suspected that she wasn't particularly used to any gestures akin to intimacy, or that she had perhaps forgotten what intimacy felt like. Oddly, he found himself something more than willing to potentially be the one who would reintroduce intimacy -of any level- to her.

* * *

Kili didn't realise how much time passed. It could be seconds, could be minutes, could be hours for all he cared, yet he was willing to hold her until she got used to the comfort and safety his arms provided. And then there was the classic Arya, who was fighting off her natural instincts from the moment they kicked in. She didn't know why she hugged him back, other than that she simply wanted to.

Until the phone rang in the living room and the sound disrupted their bubble of bliss. She was the first to break the hug and take an awkward step back from him, and he couldn't do anything else than accept her retreat this time.

"I'll get it," he said under his breath, quite displeased that the moment they shared was so brutally interrupted by the damn phone. He quickly wiggled his head to shake the disturbing notion off and returned to his default mode. "Gather your carcass and come to eat."

He was already heading to the door, not even expecting to hear an answer or a protest as the ringing became rather insistent and annoying. Passing by her office, his eyes took a glimpse of the box in which she kept all this stuff she had flashed at the table two days ago and hadn't bothered to put it back to its usual shelter.

There were random, all sorts of things inside, yet there was something that literally made him stop dead in his tracks and forget the phone that continued to ring. "Arya...?"

"Mmm?" she absentmindedly murmured, having fallen three strides behind him, unable to believe what had actually taken place a while ago; the fact that they were spared a fight and he actually hugged her.

Kili swiveled around, holding something in his hand, with a look of all the perplexity in the world etched across his face. "What is my t-shirt doing in the box?"

And just like that, all hell broke loose.

* * *

**Hope you liked that and I'm again very sorry that the original story wasn't updated in time.**

**Leave a review if you want!**


	2. Chapter 2

**Hello to you all! Many thanks to those who followed, favourited and reviewed this! Those of you who left a review asked for a second one, plus I won't be able to update the original story for a while, so I'm making amends by writing some more snippets for this story. I wanted to write something to cheer myself up, so this is just pure, shameless fluff. Enjoy!**

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If there was a time for the gates of hell to open up and pull Arya inside, it'd better be now. Inwardly cursing, she wondered what serious wrongdoing she had done to anyone so that it turned back to her now. Every single of her mistakes flitted before her eyes and she could no longer see Kili in front of her, but Jules Winnfield reciting the famous passage of Ezekiel, ready to execute her.

Only instead of a gun, Kili was holding the blasted t-shirt he had lent her months ago to wear when she was cast to his place to stay for the night, because Fili and his date had every intention to get pretty loud and describing during the night. There was a mere wall, and quite thin of that, separating their rooms after all. So Fili had been considerate enough to not let her lose sleep and eventually shipped her out to his brother's place, despite her protests that she would rather pace around the city all night long than disturb his Royal Highness' peace.

Long story short, she eventually and unwillingly dragged herself there, his Highness miraculously had no problem with her crashing on his couch but, as history showed, naturally something bad had to happen. Milk was spilled on her blouse, so Kili lent her one of his t-shirts to wear at work the day after. He hadn't since then asked for it back and it had been a most busy time, so the whole thing was completely erased from her mind. History became legend, legend became myth, and for four and a half months the t-shirt passed out of all knowledge.

Until now, that luck struck again, and the piece of clothing ensnared his holder of the past months. From the whole bloody closet, it had to be found in there. Had she actually put it in there herself in a fit of madness –or rather drunk-, or did it accidentally end up there some time she moved the clothes around? She was rather eager and comfortable to believe the second.

Three seconds of deadly silence, only punctuated by the sound the phone made, intervened between the moment his hands took hold of the shirt and turned to face her, during which Kili felt as though they were a whole century. The light dizziness with which he had woken up prior to his visit here apparently continued to haunt his head, despite his belief that it had been just a head rush from waking up too fast, and also his heart seemed to malfunction all of a sudden.

One beat. "Arya..." A fainter beat. Straight line. "What is my t-shirt doing in the box?"

"I... don't know?" she replied with a shrug, frozen on the spot, her whole body stiff.

Kili wiggled his head in confusion. "You don't know?"

"It must have ended up in there by mistake as I was fiddling with the clothes, you know... I forgot to return it to you after you lent it to me so, you know-" she babbled awkwardly, "since you found it, you can take it back."

"Aha," he mumbled thoughtfully, choosing to believe her sayings and not torture his mind with thoughts and notions that would potentially keep him awake at night. Without another word, he turned his back to her and headed for the living room where he had left his phone, which was now ringing anew.

When he saw what name was flickering on the screen of his phone, he positively looked like the incarnation of a serial killer. "What?" he all but growled.

"_Have you murdered each other yet?_" Fili's cheerful voice twittered.

* * *

Arya allowed the breath she was reflexively holding to finally come out and with hesitant steps followed suit seconds later. Strolling down the hallway towards the kitchen, she caught Kili's voice obviously speaking on the phone.

"... but I will certainly murder someone soon enough-"

Arya's hands clenched into fists as she walked closer and closer. Her ears began to ring and her head was set ablaze. Of course, she couldn't have known that by 'someone', he meant his brother and his unfortunate timing to ruin every single moment of peace she and Kili shared.

"Why won't you come tomorrow?"

"_Uh, have you looked outside?_"

Without replying, the brunet opened the curtain of the small window in the kitchen and came face to face with impossibly huge, thick raindrops the size of tennis balls falling from the dark grey sky and idly plopping on the ground. "It wasn't even raining half hour ago!" he almost squeaked.

"_Oh, yeah, since rainy weather is such a rare phenomenon in this country,_" Fili commented wryly. "_It's even worse here. Half the roads are flooded and are starting to close._"

Kili cursed under his breath. His head started to feel a little iffy. "Okay, talk to you later. Take care."

He was standing next to the kitchen counter when the call came to an end, having no idea that she had just entered the kitchen. Really bad decision on his part to stand so close to the cutlery block, Arya noted. There were knives in there. And she really knew how to use them.

The sound of footsteps reached Kili's ears and he quickly shoved the phone in his pocket and swiveled around. His brother's flatmate was standing two feet away, so disturbingly tranquil that almost made him recoil.

Her face marvellously resembled a blank sheet of paper and she deflected so well that not even in his wildest dreams and thoughts he could fathom that on the inside her hand was itching to smack herself on the head because of her stupidity to even believe that the hug was proof of even the slightest hint of care about her. He didn't care at all, she concluded, he was just obligated to comply with his brother's order.

"Why did you come in the first place, Kili?" she asked almost indifferently, as though she cared no whit to hear the answer. "Don't say to bring me food. As you see, all my four limbs function just fine. I could cook something myself if I got hungry."

"I have no doubt that your limbs function well enough," Kili shot back. "It's your brain that I'm worried about."

She did not dignify this with the answer her mind improvised at a moment's notice. Instead, she mustered another dismissive look, urging, "You are free to leave, you know. I wouldn't want to foil whatever plans you have."

His eyes narrowed. Where was she going with this? And why did she have to misunderstand everything? "The only plan I have is to keep you company-"

"It is not a plan if you're forced to do it, it's an obligation," she countered. "And I don't like to be indebted to anyone. You clearly don't want to be here," she pointed out, "I'm in no special haste to keep you here," somewhere in the world an actor possibly jumped off a building right then by how convincingly that line was delivered from her mouth, "so if you'd please be so kind as to bugger off, that would be great."

"What, you're kicking me out of my brother's house?"

"I am kicking you out of nowhere," she said coldly. "My feet touched no part of your body."

His face was starting to get dangerously red. "Why do you have to make everything difficult?" he snapped. "I came here so that you wouldn't be alone all weekend and you are rude enough to tell me to bugger off-"

"You came here because Fili told you to come," she snapped back. "So can we please stop playing this game?"

Kili gave the bridge of his nose a violent pinch, trying to fight off the increasingly annoying headache that plagued his mind and was now getting worse due to the voice volumes and tone that Arya used. He abandoned his post next to the counter and walked over to where she stood. She tried to draw further back as he rested his hands on either side of her head, effectively trapping her between himself and the fridge. Despite how powerless she seemed right now against him, her slender figure was quite deceiving. He remembered Fili describing her as freakishly strong when she carried the boxes after that unforgettable trip to IKEA.

Still, he could sense when he had the upper hand in a situation and this one was a perfect example of that rule. He would also prefer to have the upper hand in other situations that his mind currently listed -always involving her-, although this was an unsettling thought that he quickly shoved in the back of his head for everyone's sake.

"Get your head out of your arse and accept the help people want to give you," he growled. "It'll make everyone's life easier."

Arya couldn't decide whether or not she was content with her entrapment. Her head certainly tended towards the 'no' end with a voice that screamed for her to push him back, yet the rest of her body seemed to not cooperate with the mental command. It relished the sudden proximity between them and apparently was too weak to resist. Damned weaknesses. She even had to clench her hands into fists on her sides to prevent them from budging even an inch away from her and, God forbid, towards him.

"So sit on a chair, eat so that you won't get sick from starving," Kili went on, "and stop trying to flambé my head. The headache is already doing enough on its own."

Just then all the barriers shattered. She took notice of the flush on his face and his glazed eyes, and her fists loosened. Her hands worriedly snapped up to his face and he almost flinched back from the surprise. He felt her palm touching his cheek and, although he couldn't say that he was displeased with how things evolved, his hand reflexively reached up and grabbed hers.

"What are you doing?" he asked in total confusion.

Arya shooed his hand away as her own crawled up toward his forehead, her face crinkled with concern. "You're hot."

Kili was torn between trying to close his gaping mouth and prevent himself from laughing out loud. "That is the most flagrant flirting I've ever received from someone."

An eye roll was her first reply. "Easy there, Casanova," was the second. "You have fever."

"What?" Kili quickly placed his hand on his forehead. "No, I don't!"

"Yes, you do actually," Arya insisted. All of a sudden, an evil grin flitted across her face and she mirthfully exclaimed, "Well, look how the tables turn! Who's the sick one now?"

* * *

One hour later, Kili had taken a warm shower and was now neatly sitting on a chair, in his sweatpants and the t-shirt he had once lent to Arya, waiting for his food to be served. After they scientifically proved that he indeed had fever with the help of a thermometer –since he was determined to believe that her assumption was wrong-, he was grumpier than a child who was deprived of his dessert.

"Lamb fillet steak with potatoes for the lady, and chicken soup for the ill."

Kili's nose crinkled in mistrust as he took a glimpse of the substance inside the tureen she brought him instead of a plate. "Are you sure this is chicken soup?"

"It's how my mum used to make it back home," Arya replied as she placed herself on the chair beside him. "Very good for when you get sick. Taste it."

Secretly dreading for what he was about to eat, he took an experimental spoonful of the soup and carefully placed it inside his mouth. It had a velvety touch, it was warm and quite tasty. He immediately felt his stomach soothing down.

"Is it good?"

He shook his head. "Well, it's certainly better than the painkillers you overstuffed my mouth with."

Arya rolled her eyes in frustration. "I gave you only two pills, Kili."

"Those were designed for giants, not normal people!"

"Very well then," she said with finality. "You can go home and take care of yourself with your normal pills, and leave me in my peace."

At that, he seemed to shut up, although he muttered something under his breath that she failed to hear. He hated being sick, but he couldn't deny that it was nice to have someone watching over him. The fact that this view would differ, if that someone was his dear mother fussing over his aching head, currently slipped from his mind.

"You have to come up with ways to keep me entertained."

Arya almost dropped the fork and the knife on the table. "Excuse me?" she inquired. "What am I, the king's fool?"

"No, you're just paying my kindness back. I helped you before and you should help me now."

The hand that was holding the knife tightened around the handle and a sudden wave of embarrassment washed over her again at the mention of the 'help' he had offered. "We can watch Hannibal," she suggested. "You could take inspiration for the murder you're planning to do." His eyes snapped at her, but she kept eye contact, slowly twirling the knife in her hand and flashing a brief smile. "And so can I."

* * *

Many tormenting hours had passed since the moment his Highness demanded to be entertained; more than eighteen hours or so, and Sunday night was upon them. Apart from small breaks to visit the loo, grab something to eat, offer Kili umpteenth glasses of orange juice and painkillers, or -exclusively for him- take a shower to keep the fever at bay, they did nothing else than attentively watch the screen and end up finishing almost the entire series in one sitting. On several occasions every two or three hours, Arya would insist that he should rest and not tire out himself, but he would counter that he was as vigorous as a toddler and that sleep was for the elderly.

It was during the penultimate episode of the second season that they found themselves settled on the couch, Arya crouching and Kili a few inches beside her, sprawled over the cushions with a coverlet around him, which she had the prudence to swaddle him with. Well, that, punctuated by the ever so slight sniffling and coughing sounds Kili made every five seconds. Empty glasses of juice, accompanied by piles of two days' used tissues that were spread around and formed small mountains made of paper and nasal discharge prompted Arya to deduce that she would be the one to clean this mess up. Not to mention that the odds she would catch the cold as well were maxed out. Still, despite his constant whining and grumbling, she couldn't bring herself to send him home and leave him at the cold's mercy.

She suddenly realised that the sounds he so far produced were replaced by deep breathing and occasional snoring. She didn't know whether or not to feel pleased that his system had finally given up and he fell asleep. A hand stretched towards his forehead; his temperature seemed only mildly lowered.

Kili felt something poking him out of his nap and he opened his eyes to find her hovering over his face.

"Time to go to bed, your Highness," she said, gesturing him to go to Fili's room. "You really need to sleep. I won't have you get worse and then put all the blame on me," she pointed out. "Goodnight."

With a harrumph, Kili brushed the mocking adjective off and sat upright, feeling all the muscles of his back ache terribly. He stood up, but stilled when he realised that she had made no move to follow. "Why aren't you getting up?"

Arya raised an eyebrow in confusion. "Why should I?"

He looked at her as though she was missing the overly obvious. "If I'm going to bed, you're coming with me."

Her ability to throw something verbal at him was briefly neutralised by the surprise. "What-? Are you suddenly so desperate for my presence around you?"

"Don't flatter yourself," Kili brushed off, pressing the OFF button on the remote and pulling her behind him as he painfully made his way to his brother's room down the hall. "I just need your services."

"See," she mumbled with pursed lips, trying to fight off the impulse to crash his head against the wall, "your proposition would be truly impossible to resist if you weren't a pig and also a bit... drippy... here."

The brunet's eyes went wide and he viciously ran back to the living room, grabbed the box with the tissues and returned. His entry was closely followed by a blow of his nose with a force that easily matched that of a tornado. With a light thud he plumped down on the bed, face down, taking a few moments to crawl under the sheets and then twist around till his head peeped out and slumped on the plush pillow.

"Comfortable enough?"

"Not even remotely," he whispered in dread, pressing his hand over his eyes dramatically. "I can hear my bones creak."

Arya refused to let the chuckle that was threatening to abandon her mouth. "What can I do for you?" she sighed.

"Can you rub that- the ointment thing that smells good on my chest?"

She crossed her arms over her chest and graced him with a smile. "Don't you have hands to do it yourself?"

Kili took a glimpse of his arms placed wearily on either of his sides and mustered his most convincing look to stare at her. "Exhausted. Can't move them," he said in a breath. "Please, fair lady, show some mercy to the ill."

"Oh, now I'll do it!" she sneered.

Yet his unbeatable puppy eyes had such a tremendous effect on anyone, even her, that made her relent. She felt ashamed of herself.

Seconds later she returned from the bathroom, sat down on the bed beside him, and helped his supposedly exhausted hands to take the shirt off. As soon as she laid eyes upon the bare-chested Kili, she struggled very hard to keep the blush that crept up to her face at bay.

He watched as she took a generous amount out of the small bottle and carefully, lovingly even, started to rub the goopy mess all over his neck and chest. She avoided his eyes, but the blush that made her face flare up naturally did not go amiss. And he would be damned if he didn't comment on it.

"Liking what we see, aren't we?"

"I can barely contain myself," came Arya's dry answer. The truth behind her reply actually scared her. She had had more physical contact with him in one day than they had since they first met each other. But perhaps this was what she needed to admit her feelings for him, at least to herself.

"It's fine, it's expected," Kili noted, sniffling lightly. "Little bit the rubbing, little bit the smell, little bit the very good looking, albeit sick man sitting across from you-"

"Well, somebody sure is smug." She didn't know why or how, but his words were infinitely unnerving. For God' sake, her arse was starting to sweat.

"Nothing to be embarrassed about," he casually went on. "Just thought you didn't like men with hairy chests."

That evil little bugger, Arya inwardly cursed. If he wanted to play rough, they could play rough. Her hand's movements suddenly turned slower, torturingly slower, sensual even, and she raised her eyes to meet his. She stared at him for a good long while before she decided to speak. "I don't care about other men," she said in the same casual manner. "At least not in the same way that I care about you."

His hand grabbed her forearm in a death grip and made her palm still right above his heart. Both of them could feel it missing two or three beats and suddenly beginning to pound under his chest.

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**Hope you liked that! Leave a review if you want, it would be greatly appreciated!**


	3. Chapter 3

**Hello, lovely readers! Many thanks to all those who followed, favourited and left a review to this! I'm so sorry there hasn't been an update in the original story yet, it's been three weeks almost, but my exams are rapidly approaching their end, which means there will be a new chapter soon! And it is going to be a goooood one, I promise :D**

**Until then, hopefully I will entertain you with this piece. I'm still trying to cheer myself up, so this is again pure fluff, although influenced a bit by A scandal in Belgravia (first episode of the second series of Sherlock). You'll see below where I'm referring to. **

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_Something less than a year ago_

It was the tenth time Arya wriggled under the thick quilt of the guest bedroom in her roommate's mum's house and let a furious groan. Not because she had seen a nightmare or something of that ilk; rather because the occupants of the room beside hers had decided to take _things_ to wholly undiscovered levels of volume.

"Have a good night, my arse!" she growled under her breath, remembering what the _happy_ couple wished to everyone before retrieving to the privacy of Kili's room.

Didn't he feel even a tiny bit ashamed that he did what he did, while his mother was sleeping two bedrooms away? The redhead was a surprise to everyone when she showed up at the doorstep of the house a few hours ago, not to mention Kili in particular, but it wasn't as though they had not seen each other for months. To be precise, they hadn't seen each other for only two bloody days and when they met again, it felt like they were reuniting after war.

Arya could justify all this, but the only thing she couldn't abide was the noise in the middle of the night. Something more than slowly and quite steadily, she started to regret her decision to accept Dís' invitation to spend the weekend there. The lone reason she had ended up accepting was to not embitter her, because she had been so kind and polite. Still, she couldn't shoo the feeling of discomfort that had framed her entire form now that she was surrounded by a family, which was not her own. In the end, however, she decided that it would only be for two and a half days, and they were going to come and go like a feather in the wind.

The real question was, why on earth would she ever believe this? Her luck was the absolute proof that whatever could go wrong, would eventually go wrong. Enter Kili and his ginger girlfriend.

To say that Arya disliked the woman would be a bit of stretch. They didn't even know each other well enough for her to form a solid opinion. As far as she knew Tauriel so far, she thought she was quite decent; hadn't given her any reason to believe otherwise. But only because she was with Kili, it made her wonder why would Tauriel waste her precious hours of life with him. In summary, she found Tauriel likable, but couldn't for the life of her figure out why the sight of her and Kili together made her wanna retch her guts out.

Yet enough was enough. It needed a few more groans, punctuated by pleadings for increase of speed and intensity, to admit that she had got to the end of her tether and have an explosion worse than Mount Vesuvius.

Tossing the covers aside, she jumped off the bed and crashed her fist against the wall. "Shut up! Shut up! _Shut up!_"

As if the bellowing burst was totally expected, the male voice gained even more tension and rose in volume.

For a brief moment, Arya contemplated the possibility of crashing her head on the wall instead of her hand, in order to break herself free from the chains of torture. She decided against it. Her head did not deserve such a fate just because Kili was making severe efforts to cause her a nervous breakdown.

After roaming around the house for the next hour or so, away from the second floor where the damn couple was, the walking ghost of her had ended up in what she thought to be the basement. It was terribly clean and tidy and quite equipped to be a basement, though. It had two huge armchairs, a table, paintings, a stereo, even a pool table. What most drew her attention, though, was a black leather case placed beside the small library.

* * *

Kili watched carefully the bow in her hand swiftly slide over the strings. He had come down to get some water when he caught noise coming from a part of the house. Not noise that made him worry of robbery; rather noise that caused him a fair amount of surprise. Vivaldi's 'Summer' wasn't the most regular thing someone could hear in the middle of the night. His feet carried him down there and he leaned against the doorframe, letting his eyes pin on the figure that had her back turned to him.

He found himself rapt in thought as he listened to her playing. Oddly, he reckoned that the piece quite neatly fit both her and the weather outside -there was a storm brewing and she was exactly like that; ready to explode on the spur of the moment, when it was least expected. And, as though she had it arranged, it finally broke out with a rumbling clap of thunder when she was near presto.

Once the piece was finished, Arya deposited the violin back to its case and idly made to turn around and resume her aimless roaming around the house. A breath hitched in her throat when she saw that there was someone's figure looming on her opposite. The surprise she managed to hid well enough in order to not give him the satisfaction of having caught her off guard.

"I didn't know you could play the violin."

"Haven't for several years, in fact," she said coldly, "hence my numerous slips as you heard, I imagine."

"What is it with you?" he actually sounded genuinely concerned. "Why can't you sleep like normal people do?"

"Excuse me?" Her jaw almost dropped and she looked at him wild-eyed. "How am I supposed to sleep when an orgy takes place in the next room?

"An orgy?" Kili chuckled. "I believe you are misinformed about the interpretation of the term-"

"Oh, bite me," she cut him off, not sharing his amusement in the slightest. "And for the sake of the innocent, unsuspecting people and their ears, if you ever are to share a house with her, please soundproof the hell out of each room, or even better find a house in the wild where you can moan at your leisure."

Despite the evident annoyance and offence her words were starting to create to him, there was a tiny part in him that wanted to laugh at her partly irrational outburst. "I don't see anyone else awake and nagging about any noise Tauriel and I made. You are the one who's playing the violin in the middle of the night," he pointed out. "So don't you think you're overreacting a bit?"

"Overreacting?" she exclaimed furiously. "I'm surprised no wolves have yet to show up," a sneer had made her features scrunch as she winced, "having mistaken you for their kin."

"What-?" A flitting thought crossed his mind right then and, despite the jolt he felt in his heart because of it potentially being true, he chose to profoundly ignore it. "Are you jealous or something?"

All the blood drained from her face at the sound of that. Her body went stiff and she felt like she was trekking a path laid with hidden traps. "Jealous of what?" she growled.

"I don't know," Kili shrugged in confusion. "Perhaps because I have a relationship and you don't-"

"I don't have such hang-ups, mind you."

"Maybe of her-"

"Of her?" she exclaimed with a crazed laugh. "Why? Because she has you? It is actually admirable that in the name of charity and goodwill, she has abided you for this long-"

"Careful not to bite your tongue and get poisoned," he cut her off, the barb effective enough to make her shut it.

He had literally cornered her and Arya was _really_ not enjoying it. She seriously considered the idea of biting off his pointing finger and let him bleed to death, but the step he took forward made her snap back to reality.

His words had miraculously made her stop. He didn't expect it to be so easy, in fact. Yet he didn't actually know what to say next. His mind was urging him to fish out anything that could be used against her. That, he was about to try, although he really doubted the aspect that he would manage to fish something out of her.

"Perhaps you are jealous of exactly what you said," he guessed with an intense look. He shifted further close to her and she reflexively backed away. "That she has a specific someone you don't."

All the discomfort this discussion was causing her suddenly diminished into something unimportant and the ship of her pride was hoisting its mainsail. "If I wanted," she said matter-of-factly, not even blinking, "I would have you right now on that pool table until you begged me for bloody mercy."

Kili struggled to maintain a passive mask upon his face, although in a deep part of him feeling disturbingly aroused by her words and, subsequently, quite ashamed about that. He was with someone, there shouldn't be someone else –especially not her- that made a spot low in his stomach tingle. "If you actually heard us before as you claim, you should know that I'm not the one who begs for mercy."

Arya let a displeased snort. "Please, move," she said scornfully. "This is a constricted space. There isn't enough room for both me _and_ your ego."

* * *

_Present_

"I don't care about other men. At least not in the same way that I care about you."

Kili was certain that his cold would possibly transmute into heart failure. There was no way to control his heartbeat, or coerce it to tamp down the beat to normal levels. "Do _you_ have fever?" he asked, eyeing the woman on his opposite suspiciously.

"Why, because I care?" Arya shot back. Her hands continued to slowly crawl all over his chest and neck, brushing aside his own that had so far held hers captive. He felt the covers budging as she shuffled closer to him. "Do you find it outrageous?" she laughed under her breath. "Is it wrong to be so mad about you?"

"Are you-" Kili shook his head in confusion. "Are you quoting Hooverphonic?"

"It seems fitting, doesn't it?" she mused, flashing a smirk. "You cannot imagine what thoughts I've had about you all these past months."

"I'm sure they're all exquisitely bad," he said with narrowed eyes.

An unrivalled pout made her face crinkle and he felt the need to stop eye contact in order not to let the situation go out of hand.

"Don't rush to conclusions," she protested.

"So what exactly are these thoughts about, if I may ask?"

"Well, for example... if I got the chance, I would like to sneak in your place one day, before you'd get there from a very tiring day at work. And when you returned home you'd be _so_ exhausted, you poor little thing... but I would be there to bathe you, if you wanted me to, and then give you a nice massage- You know how good massages I give, right?"

"Something may have caught my ear, yes."

"I don't get tired very easily, so I would massage you everywhere," she continued with a twinkle in her eyes, and voice low and seductive. "Where your muscles would feel sore... or anywhere else you would like me to touch you." Goosebumps formed on his skin as her fingers caressed his biceps. "Does it sound good so far?"

He suppressed a groan at the back of his throat, starting to feel a slight discomfort somewhere south –well, slight... that's putting it mildly. "Someone would say so," he breathed out.

"Mmm, I thought so," she sighed. "But after those good thoughts... there come the bad ones. The _very_ bad ones."

"Oh," Kili said, his interest piqued to the maximum. "Do tell." A breath hitched in his throat as she leaned even closer to him.

"Ah, the things I would do to you then..." she purred in his ear, and he felt her hot breath tickling him rather torturingly. "You wouldn't be able to wiggle even a toe afterwards."

"Who's the smug one now?" Kili managed to mutter, struggling to contain himself under the effect the scent of her skin had on him. He deserved a bloody medal for his restraint. "Let me guess, you would have me until I begged you for bloody mercy?"

"Until you begged for mercy _twice_," Arya noted simply, one hand gently resting on his shoulder and the other slowly sliding down his torso. "So... would you like me to try it out?"

His head might have slightly bobbed in what she supposed to be a positive nod, but she couldn't be sure. His eyes were burning holes in hers and his whole body was stiff, as though someone was torturing him and he was in severe pain.

"Sorry, I didn't catch that," she breathed against his jawline in her most innocent voice as she slowly brought her face an inch away from his, the tips of her fingers rubbing small circles across his abdomen. "Would you like me to try?" she repeated more insistently.

He swallowed the lump that had set his throat as its residence, convinced that the end of the world was drawing dangerously near. "M- Maybe," he stammered, the southern discomfort growing worse and worse by the fraction of the second. Thank everything good and pure in the world that the quilt was there to hide any sign of potential humiliation.

Arya allowed the smile on her face to turn into a full, broad grin. "Sucker."

A wild blush spread all over Kili's face then, his eyes shot open and he blurted out a loud, annoyed huff. He couldn't decide what of the following two he was more, embarrassed or furious. In the end he settled for both. "You- You are-"

She flashed a wicked smirk. "That'll teach you not to mess with me."

"You are _so_ gonna regret doing that," he growled menacingly.

"Yeah, yeah, save your strength for when that time comes," she brushed him off, ignoring his exquisitely heated glare, "and try to get some sleep now."

* * *

Two hours had passed since the moment her tremendous acting performance came to an end, and Arya had yet to even experience the first signs of sleepiness. Her nervous gaze fell on the mound beside her that slept soundly. She placed a hand on his forehead, trying her best not to wake him up, and with a small sigh of relief noted that the fever had abated. She fixed the fluffy quilt to cover him better and let a long, weary sigh. If she were careful and made no noise whatsoever, she could crawl out of the bed and go to her own bedroom or to watch something-

"Don't you even think about it," a hoarse voice and a strong hand around her arm made her trail of thoughts falter.

With eyes wide from fright, she cocked her head at him. "Oh, for the love of God, Yoda" she snapped in annoyance, "can you hear my thoughts now? What do you have, a wire inside my head?"

"No," Kili mumbled drowsily, "just the fact that you are wiggling your toes for the past two hours, coupled with the sighs you let every other minute, and it does not take long to make a deduction from there on."

Confirming his theory, Arya let another sigh. "Come on," she whined impatiently, trying to get him to let her go, "I can't sleep and I'm bored. I need to do something."

"Agree," he murmured, his eyes not bothering to even open to look at her. "You need to tend the ill."

"I did, and the whole weekend for that matter. He is very comfortably lying on the bed and should be sleeping right now." In vain she tried to pull her arm away from his. The grip he had on her forearm was as if someone had cemented them together.

Here, he graced her with an eye cracked open. Even now, the puppy eye this time had its effect. "What if I die in my sleep?"

"Oh, for the love of God, Kili," Arya burst, "it's just a cold!"

"Just a cold?"

"Men are such babies," she said with another tired sigh. "On the first day of my period, I can't even get up from the bed and you tell me you can't stand a little fever?"

"It's not the same!" he protested.

"Of course it's not the same!" she agreed. "Fever is easier!"

"How is it easier?"

"Well, I don't see the bloody Niagara Falls coming out of you every month!"

Even half-asleep, Kili couldn't resist blurting out a delighted chuckle. She found herself entranced by the sound.

"No need to be so descriptive," he said, letting a wide yawn.

Before Arya could reply, he suddenly pulled the quilt over to cover her as well and rolled over on his side, effectively trapping her under half his body.

If the surprise of the movement wasn't the dominating feeling inside her, it would be embarrassment. "Uh... hello?"

Yet Kili only resolved to give a small sigh of contentment as a response. "Good God," he muttered, "the bed and the pillows are instruments of torture compared to you." She was all soft and plump in a particular spot upon which his head currently resided and, under other circumstances, he would worship like a pilgrim that sought the light and had finally found it.

Arya gritted her teeth in mortification. He had turned her into his plushy, not to mention his own personal mattress. "Kili," she mumbled through clenched teeth, "you're squashing... _things_!"

"Come on, you big faker," came his wry reply, "as if you don't like it."

Her whole body went stiff as anger began to boil inside her head. "You know that I can deprive you of the opportunity to have children in the future, right?" she mused loudly, budging her knee to point out how close it lay to a part of his body that was meant to be treated nicely by women.

"Alright, alright," he grumbled, "I'll shut up if you shut up and let us both sleep."

She took a deep breath that actually lasted for a few long seconds, before she exhaled and rolled her eyes. "At least try to breathe through your nose. I'd really appreciate it, if there weren't any stains of drool or mucus on me in the morning."

"As my lady commands," Kili cocked his head to the side, probably nodding in compliance with the terms she had set, and was out in less than five minutes.

The way in which he addressed her made her toes curl unreasonably much. Not so much the 'lady' part, but rather the 'my' part. On the other hand, the rational part of her mind noted, it might have been a figure of speech and she was getting quite fidgety for no reason whatsoever.

One of the best privileges that singles all around the world had at their disposal was the ability to spread across a bed like an octopus. Arya held it in very high esteem. And it now felt fairly odd to share a bed with someone who, instead of sprawling himself to his heart's content, chose to cuddle up next to –or rather on top of- her. It wasn't unpleasant, not even remotely. If she were honest with herself, she liked it quite a lot.

Her shoulders suddenly fell and her face crinkled, when it hit her that she liked it to such a degree only because it was him occupying the space above and next to her. A whimper almost escaped her mouth then- she was ridiculous. Of their own accord, as though they had no connection whatsoever with her stupefied brain, one of her hands came to stroke his hair and the other started to draw lazy patterns across his back and the arm he had around her middle. It felt terribly weird and odd to be able to do that –_she_ to _him_-, and it made her wonder if this was the only chance she would ever get to be so close to him.

Bloody thoughts.

Naturally, she didn't even get an hour of sleep. Not until the early hours of morning came and found her in the same position, and a snuffly Kili blissfully napping on her chest like a baby.

* * *

**As I told you, I needed to cheer myself up, that's why this pointless fluff. Hope you enjoyed that :) **  
**Review if you want!**


	4. Chapter 4

**Hello, dear readers! I have been sleeping for almost three days in a row after my exams and have no intention to break that wonderful tradition, so I will continue doing it for the next week or so (it is actually a miracle that this was written). Many thanks to all of you who followed, favourited and left a review! I'm so happy you like the modern version as well, because it was something I was just fiddling with in my spare time and it may turn out to have some potential :)**

**In this one we're mainly exploring the morning after and it is mostly fluff -weird, eh?- _again_, because I have stuff planned for the future that are no fluffy at all. If things go as planned, there will be major drama ahead.**

* * *

Arya was unable to settle down for sleep. Yet that inability of hers wore thin as time went by. All her muscles started to ache and she felt her body grow heavier by the second; not to mention her eyelids.

It was weird, the present situation. She felt content and uncomfortable at the same time; wanted to remain as such and all the while push Kili away to sleep with all the comfort the bed offered her.

No, this wasn't right. It might feel right, but it wasn't. Her personal status was solitude, by default. And she felt perfectly comfortable with it. At least she had quite successfully convinced herself that the people that surrounded her were better off without her buzzing around their heads and burdening them with her troubles, when they already had their own. And now... her gut told her that she was the one who was going to be disappointed and harshly pulled back to reality in the morning, not Kili. This didn't mean anything for him, and his alarmingly kind and close-contact behaviour was possibly nothing more than fever delirium. All men were such babies when they got sick and needed someone over their heads to constantly keep an eye on them. Why would Kili constitute an exception to that rule? She was nothing more to him than a temporary nurse and he would return to his state of dislike when he would be well; sure as hell.

The negation party would probably come victorious out of this inner conflict, _if_ she was able to keep her eyes open and continue mulling over this to an exhaustive degree. Yet thinking too hard tired her brain out and it sought a few hours of necessary rest. Not that they would be productive, since her brain had the actual ability to never stop thinking excessively through every single matter even if she was asleep. Still, it worth a shot.

* * *

The sniffles did not let Kili enjoy his sleep as much as he would like to. Many a time he was dragged away from the dreamland and briefly returned to reality, only to discover that his living mattress was fully awake and slightly nervous, if he had to venture a guess. The latter he concluded from the fact that she wouldn't stop wiggling her toes and subsequently shake the bed a tiny bit.

He was surprised, though, when he felt a hand stroking his hair and the other drawing patterns on his back and the arm he was hugging her with. His mouth curled in a sleepy smile and he lazily rubbed her side with his thumb; or so he thought in his practically unconscious state.

It was much, much later that he emerged from another dream and realised she had finally dozed off. Her breathing was practically untraceable and he raised his head with a worried look, facing her terribly placid face. There was an actual crease of worry on his brow and he made to check her pulse to certify if she was actually breathing or not. After he reassured that she did with a small sigh, he abandoned his post on the bed to use the loo and take another quick shower to keep his temperature in relatively low levels. It was followed by one more of those huge painkillers she had been giving him the past two days.

Upon his return, he found Arya huddled up in a quite peculiar position on her side, facing the nightstand, her brow crinkled as she slept. He crawled under the covers and carefully lay behind her, trying not to wake her up and noting the light tremor her body shook with. With brow furrowed in concern, he thought that she had eventually caught the cold as well. But when he placed the back of his hand on her cheek, he found that she was quite cool. So, no, she had no fever.

The second guess he took was that she was having a nightmare. Yet she was fairly quiet regarding that aspect. If she was having one, she was suffering it in relative silence.

Kili didn't know what to do. Should he... comfort her in some way? It wasn't his area of expertise, really. He tentatively stretched out a hand towards her arm, but before he could touch her she gave a twitch, and he retrieved it. Her t-shirt was creased from the abrupt movement and lowered around the back of her neck, revealing the tip of something very interesting. It could be seen due to the light that managed to creep into the room through the huge windows on the wall –here, he inwardly thanked his brother's prudence to find this house.

It was- It seemed like...

Curiosity got the better of him.

This time, his hand did not hesitate to reach out and slightly tug at the fabric, while the other carefully pulled her hair out of the way, making a most astounding discovery. There it was, right between her shoulder blades, with calligraphic letters; a tattoo. For an unearthly reason, it made him crack a faint smile. His eyes squinted as he tried to read the letters under the dim light the city offered through the windows. After a significant attempt, he was finally able to discern that it said 'What goes around comes around.'

It was a rather simple design, save the calligraphic letters, and he found it quite... He felt deeply ashamed of himself for that and- Oh, to hell with it. Yes, he found it hot.

A desperate huff escaped his lips as his hand abandoned her t-shirt and slumped on the bed. He felt as though someone was playing drums somewhere between his ears and for a brief moment he thought that fever was returning more ardent than before. In the end, however, the correct deduction was that he felt frustrated because he had missed his opportunity for further physical contact with her. He couldn't possibly shift her around and resume his sleep on her, it would be rather ridiculous on his part. And here, he couldn't help but wonder, why on earth would he want to prolong the moments of physical contact with her. And the answer bloody frightened the bejesus out of him.

No, Kili decided, he couldn't deal with this right now. For it would deprive him of good hours of sleep that he seriously needed.

As quietly as a cat he shifted closer behind her and draped his arm around her waist, settling to sleep like that for the rest of the night. What he couldn't avoid, though, was the river of hair that tickled his whole face. With difficulty, the arm he had under his head carefully placed the abundant strands of hair higher to free his field of vision and breathing. At least it smelled nice, so whatever tickling it caused could be tolerated.

It took a rather significant amount of time for her nightmares to reach their end, and she was wriggling quite nervously till that blessed moment came.

Kili had no problem admitting it anymore, to himself at least. He could definitely get used to this. It might sound very soppy, yes, he was unfortunately aware of it and ashamed that a man his age had such a thought that could only be found in romantic novels, but her sleeping form felt quite snug beside him. And another part of his body with its _relatively_ own will agreed to that realisation very eagerly, although he would be damned if he allowed that part of his body to show its agreement. God forbid if he did. Decapitation would be atonement in that case.

It took all his willpower for his mind to win the trial against his body. With these unnerving thoughts he fell back into a slumber, tightening the covers around both of them.

* * *

A phone buzzing brutally pulled the brunet out of his blissful dreamworld and he tried to push his eyes open. It was impossible to say the least. After a few seconds of intense effort, they managed to open in tiny slits, not allowing whatever light sneaked into the room from the eastern window to blind him.

The phone kept buzzing insistently. He didn't remember to have put it into vibrate mode.

And then came the realisation.

It was not his phone.

Stretching his neck up, his eyes opened a little more and he faced Arya's phone continuing to buzz silently on the nightstand. She, on the other hand, had not budged even an inch, still in deep sleep. Carefully he reached out a hand and saw the name of the one who dared to disturb her already troubled sleep at this ungodly hour.

It was not in his character to answer someone else's phone unless he was permitted to, but in this case he reckoned it wise to end the annoying buzzing as fast as possible, just to not disturb her nap. Plus the caller wasn't someone that he was unfamiliar with.

"Hey-"

"_Glad to see you're still alive!_" Fili's chirpy voice was heard. "_Is my prat of a brother ali- Who is this?_" he asked as soon as he realised that voice did not belong to his flatmate.

"It's your prat of a brother," Kili muttered drowsily, his eyes already half-closed again –not that they had been fully open before, but anyway.

"_Why are you answering her phone?_" Fili's palpable worrying voice demanded. "_What did you do to her?_"

Kili shifted to lay on his back, withdrawing his face and mouth as far from her as possible to not risk waking her. "She's asleep," he appeased. "As I was for that matter, you wanker. Who calls at-" he shot a glance at the hour, then his sleepy voice turned into a grumbling drawl, "_six thirty_ in the bloody morning?"

"_The one who's stuck in uncle's house and wants you to go to work and email me some papers- Whoa, whoa, whoa, hold up there,_" he paused for a second. "_What do you mean she's asleep? How do you know she's asleep? And what are you doing with her phone?_"

Kili could almost see the expression on his brother's face. His mind was forming the image of him as they spoke, and it was fairly ridiculous. "I mean she's asleep," he repeated in a vexed whisper. "I know because she's right here next to me, and I answered because she managed to sleep only two hours ago and you, idiot, almost woke her-"

"_Next to you?_" the disbelieving yelp came from the other side of the line. "_Seriously now? You mean to tell me that you slept together?_"

"Mhhm," the brunet murmured, almost on the verge of dozing off again.

"_Not a chance,_" Fili said decidedly. "_I wager my ball-_"

Before his brother could say something he would deeply regret in the future, Kili hung up and put her phone back on the nightstand, then shuffled to his previous position, closely curled behind her and careful not to wake her. Not lingering much and just because he was dying to get one more hour of sleep, he grabbed his phone, took a picture and texted it to Fili. Truth be told, it was a miracle he had actually pressed 'send', because his eyes had taken a disturbing tendency to be sealed again.

* * *

Hot tea came out of Fili's nose, but it was _totally_ worth it. He couldn't figure out whether or not this was reality, or the reality of a parallel universe. Evidence certainly pointed towards the second. And by evidence, he meant the lovely picture his brother had just texted him.

He was _so_ gonna frame it. It could also be used as blackmail material, under the threat that he would hang it on the wall in the office for everyone to see. His gut itched for him to show it to somebody, but he imagined that uncle Thorin wouldn't be at all amused by a picture of his younger nephew cuddled up and sleeping with his older nephew's flatmate; but at all amused.

The overwhelming amount of comments that currently queued in his head regarding the situation was killing the blond, and he wished he could remember each one of them to tease the pair every day for the whole next year.

But then his eyes spotted something that made them bulge and prompted another mouthful of tea to be sprayed out of both nose and mouth this time.

* * *

Another buzzing sound came in the next minute and roused Kili from his very brief slumber as he felt the vibration in his hand. It was a text this time.

_Fili: Is that my bloody bed? WTF did you do on my bed?_

Before Kili had time to even wiggle his thumb, there came another text.

_Fili: Y know what, don't tell me. Don't wanna know. Just put the sheets into an autoclave before I come back._

A muffled chuckle was drowned in his throat and Kili dropped the phone next to the pillows, eager to resume his delightful snooze. He knew he would be cranky if he didn't, so it was for everyone's sake.

* * *

An hour later the patient woke for good this time, snugly covered under the quilt, with the distant sound of music coming from somewhere in the house. He cracked a whole eye open this time –that was a miracle-, trying to take in his surroundings, and looked around the room; he was alone. He made to sit up straight, yet a shadow suddenly formed on the floor of the hallway and the figure to which the shadow belonged made appearance and had him freeze on the spot.

He saw Arya flouncing from her room to the bathroom with knickers and towel in hand, the flounce part of the little dance she was making, and his mind literally erased the process of breathing. Apparently, she was fairly comfortable with being in the buff –made sense actually, if she was to take a shower. Although she probably had no idea that he was awake and perving on her, or rather that he was able to watch her from that spot on the bed.

Blame Fili for positioning the bed directly on the opposite of the door and the hallway. And here, he couldn't help but wonder if Fili had ever had the fortuitous chance to accidentally see her like this. The brunet's face wrinkled in disgust –he seriously hoped not.

The sound of running water reached his ears and Kili let a sigh of relief. The torture was over. But my, oh my, even that tiny glimpse of her was seriously going to haunt every single of his dreams from now on. He quickly shook his head and averted his gaze from where her figure had once been. Oh, for the love of God, he was turning into a lecher.

* * *

Too distraught by the music, Arya had no idea that Kili was all awake and conscious as she danced her way across the hall from her room to the bathroom.

The brunet's head slumped heavily on the pillow as he pondered that he had to drag himself across the room and dress up to go to work. He was sick, for the love of God, didn't he deserve a day off? He did. And he would have taken it, had his beloved brother actually been there to go to work and not burden a sick man with the task. Perhaps he would go to work for three or four hours, then return to eat some soup and resume his needed rest; all this, hopefully without fever nagging him. He couldn't take Arya along to continue taking care of him, though, because she was perfectly healthy and had serious work to do. Monday mornings were unfortunately the worst and busiest.

Speak of the devil, she seemed to be done with the bathroom's occupancy. As expected, a minute or two after the sound of running water ceased she made appearance again, this time with a bathrobe wrapped around her –_thank God_, or else Kili would have to take a much needed cold shower in a while.

The music took a sudden turn, but she wasn't deterred and began to dance anew. The sight made Kili purse his lips in amusement. He didn't know if this was her default mode or something that rarely emerged, but right now he could understand why Fili had once said that she was a blessing to have in the house.

Slowly he crept out of the bed and the covers and walked up to the door where he leaned on the doorcase, crossing his arms over his chest and watching her with interest. Whatever signs of his cold were temporarily neautralised when such a scene unfolded before his eyes, watching her just stroll about and groove on the music. She continued for another two minutes or so, until her steps brought her closer to him, with her back turned.

"Macklemore would be proud of you."

The surprised, quite frightened yelp she unsuccessfully tried to suppress pierced his ears, as his voice disrupted her dancing bliss and also balance. Her foot slipped and she would take a magnificent tumble backwards that would be the source of jokes for the next few weeks. Yet she eventually landed on something solid, though not as hard as the expected ground and quite far from it, for that matter. "Is that your idea of revenge?" she panted out with wide eyes. "To scare the crap out of me?"

Kili shot her a pointed look as he helped her back to her feet, noting, "How you managed to start with disco and ended up to 'Thrift shop' is beyond me."

"How long have you been awake?"

"Long enough to conclude that Gloria Estefan was right," he quipped as an impish smirk flitted across his face, "the rhythm is gonna get you."

However, Arya did not share his amused disposition and pulled a sneer. "Did you see anything?" she snarled, her brow furrowed in suspicion as she squeezed the bathrobe even tighter around her.

"Unfortunately," Kili admitted in a voice that he almost congratulated himself on how much dismay it conveyed, effectively concealing his true feelings, "a lot more than we would both like to know."

* * *

**Hope you enjoyed that! Leave a review if you want, they are really appreciated!**


	5. Chapter 5

**Hello, my dear readers! Many thanks to all those who read, followed, favourited or left a review, you truly make my day brighter! As for the original story, it will most likely be updated on Friday or Saturday, regarding which I would like to apologise for the lack of a new chapter, but there has been an issue with a sunburn that is the root of all the trouble and delay.**

* * *

Kili had eyed her for a very long minute before she stormed to her room, and he resumed his foregone morning visit to the bathroom. Vaguely he noted her voice grumble something about office, and the sound of the door closing quickly followed suit. It didn't take him long to figure out that she was off to work.

Memories of last night sneakily crept back into his mind. She had played her part very well; dangerously well, for that matter, and the southern discomfort he felt was concrete proof of it. But two could play this game. He wouldn't use the same underhanded method, of course, because it would turn quite cliché to copy it, plus there was a high chance she would figure it out rather soon. No... He was going to use another one that would seal her embarrassing defeat and render him the winner.

It was weird, he thought, that such an idea crossed his wicked mind at that moment in that place. He had read somewhere that people could get really focused and concentrate while brushing their teeth, but it had never happened to him before. Usually during these morning hours, he was just struggling with himself to get his eyes simply open. Of course, the hot water that splashed across his face did most of the work.

Yet he reckoned the matter haphazardly, without the woman into whose net of charm he had fallen.

* * *

Walking hurriedly across the small path that separated the offices from the studio, Arya was totally oblivious to the slippery paper -a random page of the magazine that had landed on the floor- in front of her, her focus alternating between her watch and the door of the aforementioned room. She had run late. She had said she would be out for ten minutes, and ended up missing for thrice that time.

Yet it was her, so there naturally had to be an obstacle in her way that would hinder her effort to reach the damn door. Her boot stepped upon the fallen page and the next thing she knew, her body was gravitating towards the floor, her purse and the small bag that were previously in her hand now flying everywhere around her head. As expected, the contents were out in the world.

As soon as her body became one with the beloved floor, a groan of annoyance left her mouth and she felt the hair on the back of her neck stand still. It was going to be a _long_ day; especially since the morning had begun so badly.

But then it got worse.

"Well, somebody obviously missed me a lot since this morning," a laughing voice remarked. "You were with me almost two hours ago. I'm very touched that you missed me so much, but running in a workplace like Usain Bolt to crawl on my feet is a bit of a stretch."

The smug tone of the very known voice made her nerves tense up like taut, live wires. Her eyes rose a few inches, the first thing they saw being a pair of shoes that led up to trousers and a jumper, underneath which hid legs and, in general, a very well-built body that could easily rival the statues of the ancient Greek gods. Her gaze fell to the floor beneath her again, an angry huff leaving her mouth. Of all the people that worked there, did it have to be him?

Dreading the repercussions of her little trip, she hauled herself up to her feet and finally came face to face with the speaker. Dark, heated eyes collided with his hazel ones, and she felt her stomach twist at the sight of the roguish smirk his mouth was curled up to. But it was not the sole smirk there. Another man, standing right beside Kili, was looking at her with amused eyes and a mouth barely able to contain a chuckle.

"You shouldn't spend so much time in the penthouse of the skyscraper your ego resides," Arya commented dryly. "Too harmful for your modesty, _if_ you are familiar with the concept of the term, of course. Now with all due respect, Your Highness, I have more important work to do than crawl on your feet."

With that, she gathered her stuff from the ground and prepared herself for a most graceful, dignified exit.

Yet fate _and_ Kili had other plans.

"Oh," he called from behind her back, "and I like your knickers by the way."

That had her dead in her tracks, her mind working feverishly to mentally check if her jeans had lowered during her sublime tumble. They hadn't. Which only meant...

Kili watched as she furiously swiveled around, a wild look on her face, and realised that the other bag she was holding still lay on the floor, along with its pink, lacy contents. Yum, yum.

For a brief moment there, the unnerving thought of who she bought that for crossed his mind and a shadow clouded his face. Then again, if she was seeing someone, Fili would certainly know. And he would subsequently inform him as well.

"I know you're dying to give me a taste of your new underwear," he went on, the smug grin still plastered on his face and his voice alarmingly innocent, "but I'm still not over with that of this morning!"

All these quips did perfect job on riling her up. She was going livid and her face had turned crimson from anger. If she did what her instincts led her to do, she had great chance to get fired. Thus she only limited to throw a guttural sound at him –something along the lines of a snarl-, grab the bag with the underwear in hand and shove herself inside the studio to spare him a castration.

"Are you two...?" a voice asked and Kili turned to face his friend motioning between him and the door that just shut.

The brunet just broke a lighthearted chuckle and rolled his eyes. "Please," he snorted, as though what was being implied was absurd. "That was payback for something." Further detail regarding what this something involved was completely unnecessary.

"Are you sure?" Luke said in disbelief. "I didn't see her very humiliated."

Kili grinned like a cat. "She's probably learnt not to let it show since last year-"

"Hold on, you're telling me there's a woman who has managed to stand undaunted by your sardonic comments for a whole year? Well, that's a first," his friend laughed. "Mate, she's my hero."

And in a fraction of a second, the grin abandoned Kili's face and gave its place to an irritated scowl. A sinister feeling was starting to fester his insides that the idea to ask from Luke to attend the meeting was not very wise, or fortunate.

* * *

"Fili says he won't be back until tomorrow evening," a snuffly voice broke the news over her shoulder in a whisper as they waited in the small row to enter the conference room.

The woman vaguely shook her head in response, her mind rather focused on the folder with the photos in her hands that she browsed.

"So," the voice suddenly deepened, yet its volume rose as he leaned far too close over her shoulder, his mouth almost touching the tip of her ear, "will I get to see the contents of that bag on you tonight?"

The comment drew some unwanted -or wanted, depending on the perception- attention from the three people in front of them, who dared to take a glimpse of the two and muffle their laughs behind their hands or folders.

So this was his revenge for last night? To embarrass her in front of everyone? Very funny, not to mention smart -for a 6 year old perhaps. "Cut it off," Arya growled under her breath, "or, I swear, I'll put laxative in your coffee and lock you in a room without a toile-"

"Hello," another voice disrupted the quiet threat that was ready to spurt out from her mouth.

Two heads belonging to Arya and Kili respectively snapped up in surprise.

"It's an honour to meet one of the few women that have tolerated this rambunctious little prat," said a tall man and smiled, pointing at Kili.

"I'm right here," Kili protested, but he was all the same ignored by the other two participants.

Arya initially scanned the unknown man's face, wondering if he was actually addressing her, and suddenly cracked a wicked smile after her eyes shot a quick glance over to the brunet behind her. "Only my pour mind and soul know how I lived through the last year and a half."

Kili blurted out a laugh, which seemed to be the exact opposite of amused, and reflexively placed his hands on her shoulders. "This is Arya, one of our photographers." He saw her stretch out her hand and he presented the man on their opposite, "And this is Luke, family friend since... I can't even remember."

Arya gave him a sympathetic head tilt. "Am I talking to another tortured soul who has endured hurricane 'Kili', and for more than two years?"

"Hey, I'm still right here!" Kili protested more eagerly.

"Both you and Fili should be hallowed," Arya told Luke seriously, both profoundly ignoring the whining voice next to them.

Kili abandoned his place behind her and started to wave his hands between them to get their attention. "Can you people not see or hear me?"

"Yes, Kili," Arya sighed, "we can both hear and see you. We can also see that you are a little drippy here," she pointed towards his nose. "So better wipe this up. Wouldn't want to get embarrassed in front of everyone, now, would you?"

And with a grin she left the jolly conversation and went to stand against the wall on the opposite of the two flipcharts, one of which was bound to become the cover for this month's issue.

Kili was in no way deterred by a snide comment that she thought to mark his defeat. What she was using against him, he would use it in his favour. "Alright, people, as you see my nose is already dripping and fever is likely to take me over in a while," he announced on his way to the head of the table, earning a few chuckles from the rest. "You are less likely to get contaminated if we get this done as soon as possible."

* * *

There was a moment every now and then that Arya could feel eyes on her. Eyes belonging to someone who she had met less than an hour ago. It made her feel fairly weird. Very unlike how she felt when it was Kili's gaze pinned on her figure. This time it was less heated, but all the same intense. Although it empowered her that the owner of those new eyes might think her attractive –female vanity be damned-, it also made her annoyed.

Not that he wasn't her type. It would be a great lie if she said that she didn't find him attractive. Because he was; attractive, charming and funny, from what she had seen so far. He had a more than nice face, blue eyes and short, dark hair. All in all, he was a dapper bloke.

Yet it did no impression on her whatsoever. Not when there was the brunet, scruffy, brooding smartarse standing on her opposite and stewing in his own juices while he spoke. How or _why_ he had transformed from the usual ray of sunshine into a dark cloud of gloom, ready to pour a storm on the first unsuspecting person to offer a polite greeting, was beyond her. Perhaps it was the cold that made him cranky. Perhaps not.

In any case, Arya liked to think that she was a quite independent human being; seldom in distress and, whenever she was, she took great care to keep it under her hat. But there was something about that living cloud of gloom on her opposite, the way his eyes now raked over her form, that made her want him to dominate her, suppress her rebellious personality and take charge. Yet every time he had been so close to do it, her brain had rebelled against her heart and hadn't let her be defeated. Perhaps she was afraid to let him do it. Perhaps she was afraid that she would like it a lot, if he did it.

A sudden heat of blood that raced to her head made her face flare up as she pondered on the second of the two categories her fear might belong to.

The blush on her face did not go amiss. Mainly from the two people who were looking at her at the moment, whose current sentiments totally differed, and for outright opposite reasons. Luke thought that his intense look was the source of her blush, Kili grudgingly agreed with him and, finally, Arya felt as though she was amid gunfire -which in fact she would rather be.

She made the mistake of shooting a short glance over at Luke, her eyes reflexively hardening as she coerced her face to look the normal pale colour. He in turn made the even worse mistake of flashing a frank smile at her, and her eyes went wide. Why would she even look at him in the first place? There were a dozen people in the room, why would her gaze fall on him? Quite flustered, she averted her eyes away from him, not even bothering to grace him with a tiny curl of her mouth, let alone a full smile.

Truth be told, Luke found the sight fairly interesting. His gut told him that she might be into him, judging by her odd, yet quite endearing reactions every time their eyes met.

Somebody else, on the other hand, looked like he was possessed by a demon. It was truly a miracle that he hadn't jerked out of his seat, grabbed her hand and dragged her out of the room, so that no one would check her out, or even attempt to stare at her somewhat suggestively. Not that his friend was the kind of man who would have his wicked way with her and wouldn't get to see her again. Quite the opposite, he was a very decent bloke. And Kili couldn't for the life of him fathom where all these worrisome thoughts and protective instincts towards her stemmed from, or perhaps he was obstinately refusing to even acknowledge their cause, but they were roused for good; quite unnerving and unreasonable thoughts, such as that neither Luke nor anyone had any right to make eyes at her.

That was it, Kili decided, he was losing it.

* * *

"You look quite young to have been assigned such projects," Luke politely remarked as the crowd slowly scattered to their respective offices after the meeting came to an end.

Arya merely quirked an eyebrow at him, yet didn't bother to look him in the eye before she was all set to go. "What I may lack in age, I definitely make up for in advice about food," she said simply, before a pointed look found its way in her eyes. "Food is important to lots of people. Therefore, my advice is important as well."

"Then I consider myself very lucky that I spent the last two years in Italy and thankfully learned a lot about the importance of food from the crème de la crème of the world's cooking industry," he countered, earning a light smile from the woman.

At least, light in his opinion. It was an awkward one, in fact, on Arya's part, because she had no idea what to reply, or where he was going with this. It didn't take more than a second for her eyes to change a subject of attention. They absentmindedly –alright, with a tiny bit of intention thrown in- roamed about the now almost empty room and landed on the tall man that was gathering his stuff from the table but almost immediately had to drop it back in order to blow his runny nose. The sight prompted a faint smile to creep up to her face.

"So what do you think?"

She twisted her neck so fast to look at the man in her front that she felt a tad dizzy. "Sorry, what?"

"Will you have lunch with us?" he repeated.

"'Us'?"

There was a short break of communication, Luke suspected. "Me and Kili," he explained. "We are going for lunch. Will you join us?"

Despite the inner flutter caused by a giant bubble of awkwardness that settled in her stomach, she remained poised. "Oh, I'm so sorry, I have work to do."

He seemed quite disappointed by the rejection, polite though as it was.

Under other circumstances Arya perhaps would feel a tad of regret, but then her mind let his words soak in for good. "Is Kili actually going to lunch like this?" she inquired with a raised eyebrow. "Someone should inform all restaurants to commence evacuation. He's already spread enough nasal discharge here."

Luke gave a light chuckle at this, though inwardly wondered why the fuss. He had heard their little exchanges before and they were enough for anyone to conclude that those two must have been quite at odds from time to time. Yet there was actual concern hidden behind Arya's look, even if her sarcastic comments contradicted it.

"I will not allow him to order anything other than soup," he appeased, "don't worry."

Eyes automatically snapped at his and hardened. "I'm not worried about him," Arya objected. "Rather about the innocent, unsuspecting people who walk down the road and have a chance for close contact with the mobile germ unit over there."

That's right, she had some standards to maintain. No one needed to know that she was actually worried about him. She and Kili were supposed to be mortal enemies, not worried about each other- A snort escaped her mouth at this. _She_ was worried about him, her mind corrected. She doubted that he reciprocated the feeling. And those roles weren't likely to change soon.

Apparently, talking about someone for a few minutes inevitably drew their attention. As if that certain someone wasn't already glowering at the two of them as they discussed.

"Well, hello there," she said with a disturbingly sweet smile when he approached them. "Do you need to be nursed today as well, or will you manage on your own?"

Kili quirked an eyebrow. "I'll make you the honour of taking care of me," he smirked, "only if you wear what was in that bag."

Luke chuckled at the playful tone in his friend's voice, but he wasn't so sure anymore if the conflict between those two was as hateful as they wished for it to seem.

The flitting urge to smack him on the back of his head disappeared as quickly as it was roused and Arya limited to roll her eyes. "Nope. This is my fault. I was just trying to be polite and you-" she shrugged. "As I said, my fault. Enjoy your lunch, you two, and it was very nice to meet you, Luke."

The man smiled at her and without saying anything to Kili, she marched out of the room, folders and photos in hand, looking over her shoulder to check if they were following. As soon as the two men were out in the hall and headed towards the stairs, Arya grabbed Kili's arm and made his step falter. If he wanted a war, he would have it.

"The bag along with its contents is a birthday gift for a friend," she whispered in his ear. "FYI, pink is in no way my colour. Black is." Then he actually felt her lips curl into a smile against his skin. "Oh, and I usually wear the whole packet... you know, stockings, suspenders- Anyway," she dismissed, patting him pointedly and a bit too forcefully on his back, "enjoy your lunch."

While Arya uttered those sentences, his body had frozen on the spot, his eyes two dilated bulbs of surprise and palpable doubt that this was actually happening. Then her presence disappeared from his side as she swiftly strolled back to the studio. Still, the words left quite the impact behind, since the mental image of her dressed in the... 'clothing' she mentioned was surgically planted into his brain.

Needless to say, Kili's southern discomfort struck back.

* * *

**Hope you enjoyed that! Kili is one saucy minx, don't you think?**

**Review if you want!**


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